Here are some research paper topics for training teachers in education theory, using the “bare wall” theory in kindergarten classrooms, and encouraging nurse educators to use evidence-based teaching.

Train teachers in education theory

For your research paper, you could write about the possibility of teachers learning education theory to improve their teaching and their image. Teachers may have a bad image, but, according to professors Janet Orchard and Christopher Winch, it might be because of the way they are trained. They may not be learning enough about education theory to be successful. In “Can you teach well without a sound knowledge of educational theory? The answer is no,” posted on Tes.com November 27, 2015, Orchard and Winch explained: “We are concerned that teachers also need to know and understand educational theory if they are to teach well, and this aspect of their professional knowledge is insufficiently developed at present. Teachers need to be able to plan successful lessons independently, and distinguish clear and legitimate aims from unclear and questionable ones.”

Kindergarten education theory

A topic for a research paper could be to discuss the concept of helping kindergarteners learn better by reducing the number of decorations in the classroom. Typically a kindergarten would be filled with colorful, happy decorations of animals and flowers, as well as academic posters and displays, such as the alphabet and penmanship.

A study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University published in the May 2014 issue of Psychological Science found that very young children get distracted by classroom decorations and a cluttered visual environment. These distractions negatively impact learning. Gillian McNamee, director of teacher education at the Erikson Institute in Chicago, commented in “The Bare Walls Theory: Do Too Many Classroom Decorations Harm Learning?” by Margaret Ramirez, on NBCNews.com, October 13, 2014: “When I walk into a classroom, often they are almost wallpapered with materials from head to toe. And for an adult, let alone a child, it can make you dizzy and lose focus.” The study brought to light the need for teachers to play a bigger role in classroom design.

Evidence-based teaching for nurses

A good research paper topic for education theory is the push by the National League for Nursing for the use of evidence-based teaching practice (EBTP) in nursing education, throughout curriculum design, evaluation, and program development at all degree levels of nursing programs. Kathleen A. Kalb, et al., conducted a study that analyzed the use of evidence-based teaching by nursing faculty. They asked what the faculty perspectives of using EBTP in nursing education were, how does faculty use evidence to inform their teaching, and what factors influence faculty’s use of EBTP.

After a survey of nurse administrators in accredited nursing programs in the United States, results showed that administrators were positive about EBTP, that it’s important for faculty to use EBTP in nursing education, and that EBTP contributes to advancing science; however, they were not confident they could easily enact changes in nursing education. Researchers found that “Overall, respondents stressed the importance of creating a culture that ensures quality evidence is accessible and used effectively by faculty. Respondents recognized the need to educate nurses who are prepared to engage in inter-professional, evidence-based clinical practice that ultimately improves patient outcomes and promotes the quality of health care,” reported in “Evidence-Based Teaching Practice in Nursing Education: Faculty Perspectives and Practices,” by Kathleen A. Kalb et al., published in Nursing Education Perspectives, July 1, 2015.

What are some trends in education theory that would make a good research paper topic?

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/12/research-paper-topics-on-education-theory/feed/0Freedom of the press and Donald Trump as research paper topicshttp://blog.questia.com/2016/12/freedom-of-the-press-and-donald-trump-as-research-paper-topics/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/12/freedom-of-the-press-and-donald-trump-as-research-paper-topics/#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 17:21:23 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45899Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and founding father of our country, expressed his support of the press when he said, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” President-elect Donald Trump has made statements that have caused concern for many in the media.

Research paper ideas to explore include a study of the important legal cases the First Amendment has played a role in over the years, as well as the role of free speech around the world and how it has been threatened.

Donald Trump and the press

During the campaign, Donald Trump developed a tense relationship with many news outlets, at times referring to them as “dishonest” among other things. He also expressed interest in changing libel laws to allow more lawsuits against the press for supposed “false articles.” A research paper could explore how the protection of free speech makes it difficult to bring legal action against the press in the United States and how this benefits everyone.

Will Donald Trump as president have a different relationship with the press than Donald Trump the candidate? Mirren Gidda and Zach Schonfeld wrote “Donald Trump’s Threat to Press Freedom: Why It Matters” on November 11, 2016, for Newsweek, and explained why the press is concerned. “But his refusal to allow a press pool to accompany him to his meeting with President Barack Obama suggested that his hostility toward reporters has not waned,” they wrote.

The role of the First Amendment

Freedom of the press is one of the foundations of American democracy, and there are systems in place to protect it. A research paper could examine some of the important Supreme Court cases that upheld the First Amendment, including Near v. Minnesota or New York Times v. Sullivan, or it could compare the libel laws in the United States to those in the United Kingdom or a country without the same protections, such as Russia.

Freedom of the press globally

The issue of freedom of the press isn’t just an issue in the U.S., it has profound effects around the world, with Russia being a prime example. “Countering Disinformation through a Free Press” originally presented as a policy review before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Benjamin Ziff, was later published in the January 1, 2016, edition of Hampton Roads International Security Quarterly. Ziff reported on the Russian government’s propaganda efforts to influence world opinion, which he says spent $1.4 billion and reached 600 million people across 130 countries in 30 languages.

Ziff stated, “The Russian government also funds think tanks and outside organizations in its neighboring states to help achieve its goals of promoting the Kremlin’s false narratives; portraying the West as a threat; and undermining trust in independent media as well as Western institutions and values.” A research paper could look at how the Kremlin planted false information in the public sphere about the conflict in Ukraine, as well as its cyber-attacks against the Democratic Party in the last election.

Do you think that freedom of the press is important to democracy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/12/freedom-of-the-press-and-donald-trump-as-research-paper-topics/feed/0Research paper topics on the human brainhttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-topics-on-the-human-brain/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-topics-on-the-human-brain/#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 17:28:59 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45875The human brain is in many ways still a mystery to scientists. Recent studies have revealed interesting new insights into brain development, including what, if any, gender differences exist between the male and female brain.

Are there gender differences in the brain?

One area that researchers have spent considerable effort exploring is whether or not the male and female brains are different. The thinking was that if the brain had gender differences linked to structure, it would provide an explanation for variations in behavior that men and women exhibit. According to a post by Nathaniel Scharping, “Human Brains Are Neither ‘Male’ Nor ‘Female’” on December 1, 2015, for Discovermagazine.com, the answer is no.

Scharping explained that a recent Tel Aviv University study found that brains exhibit a combination of characteristics deemed male and female. “When researchers looked at the 10 most dimorphic regions of the brain they had identified, they found that there was substantial variation between subjects no matter their gender, and that only 6 percent of the brains they analyzed were either “all-male” or “all-female.” A research paper could take a more philosophical approach appropriate for a women’s studies class and question whether trying to determine gender differences is a sexist endeavor.

How does stress impact brain development?

What researchers do know is that stress can impact human brain development. Interestingly enough, a new study out of Stanford University indicates that there may be gender differences in how the female and male brain handles trauma. The BBC reported on November 12, 2016, “Stress ‘changes brains of boys and girls differently’” that “Their findings suggest that boys and girls could display contrasting symptoms after a particularly distressing or frightening event, and should be treated differently as a result.”

The study found that the part of the brain linked to empathy was smaller in girls that had experienced a significant traumatic event in their lives, possibly resulting in an increased risk of PTSD in girls versus boys. Other consequences could be faster aging of this part of the brain that handles empathy, the insula, and an early onset of puberty for traumatized girls. A research paper could discuss how boys and girls respond to stress or trauma differently and ideal treatments to address these gender differences, or take a historical tact and explore debunked ways that science used to separate the sexes.

One study published in JAMA Pediatrics (2015) found that “Children from the poorest backgrounds showed greater diminishment of gray matter and scored lower on standardized tests.” The second study was published in Nature Neuroscience in 2015 and Hayasaki wrote it “found that children with parents who had lower incomes had reduced brain surface areas in comparison to children from families bringing home $150,000 or more a year.” Research paper topics to delve into include what social programs could mitigate or halt how class differences impact the human brain and its development.

Are there other areas of research into brain development that you think should be studied? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-topics-on-the-human-brain/feed/0New faces in the senate: Women’s studies and American history research paper topicshttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/new-faces-in-the-senate-womens-studies-and-american-history-research-paper-topics/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/new-faces-in-the-senate-womens-studies-and-american-history-research-paper-topics/#respondMon, 28 Nov 2016 17:28:20 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45859If you are looking for research paper topics in your women’s studies or American history classes, it’s worth noting that two women made history in their senate races in the 2016 election. Kamala Harris (D) of California became the first South Asian-American to serve in the Senate (as well as the second black woman to be a senator) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D) of Nevada became the first Latina to secure a Senate seat.

Kamala Harris, the first Southeast Asian-American to be elected to the Senate. (Credit: LA Weekly)

There have been women in the senate since shortly after the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, and looking at the history of how those women have served, as well as the first woman to be a senator and first woman elected, provides a historical context for the women who serve today.

Harris and Masto in the 2016 election

The 2016 election broke the current record of women in the U. S. Senate. The previous record, held by the (current) 114th Congress was 20 female senators. Beginning when the 115th Congress is sworn in, there will be 21. Among those women are not only Harris and Masto, but Tammy Duckworth (D, Illinois), the first Thailand-born senator, whose American father descends from veterans of the American Revolution.

Harris already had a number of “firsts” under her belt. As Bill Chappell reported for NPR, as hosted in “Women Record Several ‘Firsts’ With Wins In U.S. Senate, Elsewhere” on the Oregon Public Broadcasting Website, November 9, 2016, “she was already California’s first woman, African-American, and South Asian-American to be attorney general.” She won her seat over fellow Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez to replace outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer (D). Harris surged ahead in the polls earlier in the race, making her win unsurprising. Masto’s race was much tighter; she won 49 percent of the vote against Republican Joe Heck, who received 44 percent. She will be replacing outgoing Senate Minority Leader Larry Reid (D).

History’s U. S. Senators

The first woman to serve in the U. S. Senate was Rebecca Latimer Felton (D-GA), who was appointed to serve in the Senate for a single day in 1922, two years after women won the right to vote. That same year, Edna Mae Nolan (R-CA) was elected to the House of Representatives, becoming “the first widow to be elected to replace her husband in the House,” according to Lisa Solowiej and Thomas L. Brunell in their September 2003 Political Research Quarterly article “The Entrance of Women to the U.S. Congress: The Widow Effect.” Likewise, the first elected woman Senator was widow Hattie Caraway (D-AK), who replaced her husband in 1931 by appointment and won her race in 1932. Caraway continued to serve in the senate for fourteen years, through several elections—four years longer than her husband had held the seat.

Solowiej and Brunell posited that widows have held an advantage in breaking through the gender-barriers of the U.S. Senate. Sometimes, this was because it was expected they would not serve long; the party scrambling to find a candidate to replace a senator who had died in office would be able to use the widow as a placeholder until they found a more suitable candidate. However, senators like Caraway show that women might have broken through the barrier due to their widowhood, but come into their own after being elected.

The Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics offered an infographic, “Women in the U.S. Senate 2016,” with plenty of research paper topic ideas about women in the U.S. Senate, including these other firsts:

Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) was the first woman to be elected to the Senate without previously having been appointed in 1948.

Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) was the first woman of color to be elected to the Senate in 1992.

Mazie Hirono (D-HI) was the first woman of Asian/Pacific Islander descent (and the second woman of color) to be elected to the Senate in 2012.

What other ideas would make interesting research paper topics about women in the U. S. Senate? Let us know in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/new-faces-in-the-senate-womens-studies-and-american-history-research-paper-topics/feed/0Find inspiration from famous authors for your research paperhttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/find-inspiration-from-famous-authors-for-your-research-paper/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/find-inspiration-from-famous-authors-for-your-research-paper/#respondFri, 25 Nov 2016 17:20:59 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45797American poet, memoirist and activist Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Writers like Angelou and other famous authors in genres from classic literature to our modern day offer readers inspiration, excitement and escape. Some authors, such as Arthur Miller, created intensely moving stories that also offer a commentary on the society of their day.

Words are very powerful and those who craft words into stories can inspire you to write a powerful research paper.

Famous authors

Staff writers at BestCollegesOnline.com compiled a list of “25 Writers Who Changed the World.” Many of the writers and their works may sound familiar to you and may have been required reading in your courses. The list gives you a quick look at how writers have changed society’s views on science, morals and relationships.

The list included:

Henry David Thoreau: author of “Walden,” and “Civil Disobedience” who argued for peaceful resistance to an immoral government and the peace of nature.

Simone de Beauvoir: author of “The Second Sex” and key player in the feminist movement influenced our understanding and study of gender roles versus sexuality.

William Faulkner: one of the most influential American writers who won the Nobel prize for his body of work, which included “The Sound and the Fury” and screenplays such as “The Big Sleep.”

This encyclopedia is for students of fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and song lyrics, who wish to learn more about the most influential and significant twentieth-century writers of Canada and the United States. Some of the writers covered here were born in the nineteenth century, but all of them did their most important writing and publishing in the twentieth century.

Works by the authors included in these volumes frequently appear in school and college anthologies or have had a profound influence upon some of the most notable authors of the 20th century.

According to Shuman, “Among the authors in this encyclopedia who influenced later authors, Gertrude Stein looms large. Her impact upon language and writing style directly affected the writing of many authors of the so-called ‘lost generation’ who gathered in Paris after World War I, among them Ernest Hemingway and E Scott Fitzgerald.”

Lessons learned

What can we learn from famous authors, even those who lived in centuries past? Kate Rockwood offered some tantalizing examples from published authors of “5 Lessons You Can Learn From Classic Novels,” in a post for RealSimple.com.

In the article, Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, explained the lesson learned from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

“Part of the reason I return to this book is that it reminds me to take a second look. In books and in life, you need to read several pages before someone’s true character is revealed,” Diaz said.

Which famous author has had the most impact on you? Tell us in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/find-inspiration-from-famous-authors-for-your-research-paper/feed/0Research paper topics: Washington D.C. votes for statehoodhttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-topics-washington-d-c-votes-for-statehood/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-topics-washington-d-c-votes-for-statehood/#commentsWed, 23 Nov 2016 17:22:10 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45781In the United States 2016 election, an overwhelming majority of residents of Washington D.C. voted for the District to become the 51st state. But the path to statehood has long been fraught for both Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, another U.S. region that has only non-voting representatives in the U.S. House.

What are the arguments both for and against statehood for these regions, and what are the stumbling blocks Washington D.C. will face with so many of its voters seeking representation? The history of these issues and their current status could make interesting research paper topics in your American history or politics course.

Taxation without representation in Washington D.C.

The slogan “no taxation without representation” is as old as the thirteen colonies—and it currently appears on many of the license plates of drivers who are registered in Washington D.C. The 2015 census lists Washington D.C.’s population at 672,228 residents, who pay federal taxes and have electoral votes, but have no representation in the House or Senate. The issue of statehood is not a new one for the district, which has had the statehood issue on the ballot many times before; the 2016 vote is a “dramatic increase over the 1982 vote” on the same issue, according to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in an interview quoted in “D.C. Votes Overwhelmingly For Statehood Referendum, Future Remains Uncertain,” posted on the WAMU 88.5 website November 9, 2016. The 2016 election results were estimated at 86% of the population voting for statehood.

But the struggle to come is getting the motion through Congress. Republican members of Congress have long opposed Washington D.C.’s bid for statehood, including in an effort where a congressional bill was brought to the floor. And while Democrats frequently support the movement, it is not seen as a high priority for the party. With a Republican controlled Congress voted into office during the 2016 Election, the bid continues to seem far off.

What reasons might there be for continuing to oppose the statehood initiative? According to an October 1990 article by Laura B. Randolph in Ebony, “What D.C. Statehood Would Mean to Black America,” the movement is opposed due to issues of race. Speaking of the statehood of Alaska and Hawaii, the last two states added into the United States, the populations of those two states are “different from the district’s in a fundamental way: they are not primarily Black.” Randolph went on to say, “If the district becomes a state, it would be entitled to elect two senators—senators who would almost certainly be Black and Democratic. And when you talk about giving Black people that kind of power at that level, simple solutions become very complex, very fast.”

Opponents are unlikely to state that objection, however. Instead, often cited objections to statehood include:

The federal government would become dependent upon the new state for utilities and public services such as snow removal and sewers, as well as police and fire.

Maryland would have to consent to the statehood, as the land on which D.C. is located was originally ceded from Maryland.

Congress does not have the authority to change the size of the District. This argument is debatable, as the District has been resized by previous Congresses.

It would require a repeal of the 23rd Amendment, which gives residents of the District of Columbia 3 Electoral College votes. If the District were limited to the White House and other Federal properties, rather than the territory that currently encompasses Washington, D.C., it could give the current president and spouse 3 electoral votes to themselves unless the 23rd Amendment was repealed.

Some opponents to statehood for Washington, D.C. propose an alternative: that D.C. should be taken back into Maryland to provide its residents with representation in the House and Senate. How much weight these arguments have, as well as other objections to the movement, could make interesting research paper topics.

Puerto Rico and other statehood movements

Unlike the residents of Washington, D.C., Puerto Ricans do not have representation in the Electoral College. In the 2016 election, Puerto Rican voters elected Ricardo Rosello of the New Progressive Party to the governorship with 42 percent of the vote. Rosello has long been a supporter of Puerto Rico’s bid for statehood. According to an Associate Press article “Ardent statehood supporter wins Puerto Rico’s governorship,” posted on Fox News on November 8, 2016, Rosello has argued that the lack of statehood and electoral college representation “deprives 3.5 million people of their full rights.” Puerto Ricans were made American citizens in 1917.

Do you think Washington D.C. or Puerto Rico should become the 51st state? Tell us in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-topics-washington-d-c-votes-for-statehood/feed/1Loving, race and civil rights history for your research paperhttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/loving-race-and-civil-rights-history-for-your-research-paper/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/loving-race-and-civil-rights-history-for-your-research-paper/#respondMon, 21 Nov 2016 17:28:44 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45765The film, Loving, tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, who in 1958, fought Virginia law in their quest to legalize interracial love and marriage. Unable to prevail, the couple was forced to leave the state and was forbidden to return together for 25 years. As the civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1960s, the Lovings took their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

The Loving story is just one of many civil rights cases that could be the cornerstone of your next research paper.

Supreme Court rulings

The case of Loving v. Virginia made it all the way to the Supreme Court and on June 12, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren announced that the Court unanimously agreed in favor of the Lovings and that marriage was a fundamental right.

1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford: said that under the Constitution the slave Dred Scott was his master’s property and that the Missouri Compromise of 1821 was unconstitutional because it deprived slaveowners of their “property.”

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson: the Court upheld a Louisiana law requiring restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and other public places to serve African Americans in separate, but ostensibly equal, accommodations.

1954 Brown v. Board of Education: concluded that the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place in our education system.

2014 Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action: Court upheld Michigan’s state constitutional amendment prohibiting state universities from considering race as part of its admissions process.

The article described how Erica Flores Dunahoo, who is Hispanic-Native American and her husband, who is African-American, were evicted from their mobile home park when the landlord discovered that the couple was interracial. Landlord Gene Baker was very forthcoming in explaining his reason for the eviction to Mrs. Dunahoo.

The reason given for the eviction is based on Mississippi “religious freedom” laws that make it possible to discriminate against anyone who offends the individual’s or community sense of propriety.

“It is noteworthy that for the past four years pundits, legal experts, and political observers have warned that these ‘religious freedom and conscience laws’ were devised to allow any person to discriminate against anyone for any reason,” Rmuse said.

Published in 2010, the book followed race stories that made news headlines- including Don Imus’ remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, protests in Jena, Louisiana, and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign- to trace the shifting contours of mainstream U. S. public discussions of race. Focused on the underlying dynamics of American culture that shape this conversation, the central question posed in this book is, “How do we know when something is racial?”

“Political psychologists generally see ‘racial’ as a set of unconscious beliefs, anxieties, or motivations that can be triggered or manipulated by certain code words or primed with racial images. […] that race is something ‘submerged,’ encompassing a range of sentiments, beliefs, and assumptions that Americans typically express or address only through euphemism and innuendo,” Hartigan said.

In drawing attention to our national conversation on race, Hartigan ultimately offers a way to understand race in the totality of American culture, as a constantly evolving debate. As this book and current events demonstrate, the conversation is far from over.

Do you think that “religious freedom” laws are a form of discrimination? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/loving-race-and-civil-rights-history-for-your-research-paper/feed/0Research paper: The electoral collegehttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-the-electoral-college/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-the-electoral-college/#respondFri, 18 Nov 2016 17:25:16 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45755As the 2016 presidential election recedes in our rearview mirror, pundits will ponder and dissect the political campaign for months to come. Although Hillary Clinton may have won the popular vote, she lost the electoral college votes, and the White House, to Donald Trump.

The electoral college explained

“The electoral college was established by our founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote,” the article began.

There are 538 electors, one for each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, one for each of the 100 members of the Senate, and three for the District of Columbia. Each state has a number of electors that corresponds to the number of members in its Congressional delegation. For example, by virtue of its delegation of Senators and Congresspersons, California has 55 electoral votes while Maine has four.

In order to win the election, a candidate must garner 270 electoral votes. Each state can choose how to allocate its share of electoral votes. Most states give all of their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in that state (as opposed, say, to the popular vote nationwide). For example, when Hillary Clinton won the majority of votes in California, she gained all of its 55 electoral votes.

What this means is that a candidate can win the popular vote, that is, the majority of individual votes in the nation, but still lose the election.

The problem with an electoral college

Those who want to reform or eliminate the electoral college claim that it creates a skewed system where some states have more power than others to swing an election outcome.

Rakove sees two basic flaws with the current system. First, it eliminates the concept of one man-one vote that is the basis of a democracy.

“The second problem is the whole battleground state issue. Once we’re past the primaries, presidential campaigns are wholly preoccupied with the relatively small number of states that are actually competitive,” Rakove said.

Drawing on his own experience with Republican battle plans, candidate schedules, and advertising purchases- plus key contacts in the Gore and Kerry camps- Shaw went on to show that both sides used information on weekly shifts in candidate support to reallocate media buys and schedule appearances. Most importantly, he used original research to prove that these carefully constructed plans significantly affected voters’ preferences and opinions enough to shift critical votes in key battlegrounds.

In the final chapter, Shaw recapped the flaws and errors of the two campaigns. One observation, regarding the role of the news media, is as true today as it was then.

“Unfortunately, the discipline was almost completely absent in 2004 as a number of contentious observations garnered an enormous amount of attention on cable television, political Internet sites, and even the more ‘respectable’ Sunday morning talk shows. Part of the trouble is that political scientists are not often asked to weigh in on elections because we tend not to speak in sound bites or see things as black or white,” Shaw said.

Do you think that the president should be elected by a national popular vote or should we keep the present electoral system? Tell us what you think in the comments.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/research-paper-the-electoral-college/feed/0Questia Reading Room: Recognize National Aviation History Monthhttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/questia-reading-room-recognize-national-aviation-history-month/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/questia-reading-room-recognize-national-aviation-history-month/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2016 17:21:16 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45749During the month of November we recognize National Aviation History Month and its dedication to explore and celebrate America’s great contributions and achievements in the development of aviation.

]]>http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/questia-reading-room-recognize-national-aviation-history-month/feed/0Documentary film on James Baldwin offers research paper topicshttp://blog.questia.com/2016/11/documentary-film-on-james-baldwin-offers-research-paper-topics/
http://blog.questia.com/2016/11/documentary-film-on-james-baldwin-offers-research-paper-topics/#respondMon, 14 Nov 2016 17:25:04 +0000http://blog.questia.com/?p=45739The documentary film, I Am Not Your Negro, works from the writings of James Baldwin to tell not only the writer’s story, but also a story of the Civil Rights movement.

Baldwin is a central figure in African-American literature and offers many avenues to explore in a research paper, including his unfinished book profiling Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King.

“Baldwin did much of his best writing about America while living as an expatriate, and this outsider’s perspective (shared by Peck, who is from Haiti) brings with it a tremendous amount of clarity,” Hoffman wrote. He added that the documentary film does an excellent job explaining the mindset of those in power and how white America could be complacent during African-American’s struggle for equal rights. A research paper could explore the Civil Rights era through the African-American literature of the time.

I Am Not Your Negro

According to an interview posted on the American Film Institute’s blog, “The AFI FEST Interview: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Director Raoul Peck,” the documentary film director, Raoul Peck, takes the writings of James Baldwin and uses them to link “racial violence in the 1960s … to current events surrounding the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police, and is edited so that disturbing images spanning almost half a century find even more heightened power together.” The result is a film of the black experience then and now.

Research paper topics to consider could include a political science focus dealing with the politics in play that resulted in President Johnson’s Voting Rights Act or a more historical focus that links the deaths of the three activists that James Baldwin was writing about in his final, unfinished work, Remember This House.

Baldwin’s role in African-American literature

Readers of James Baldwin will quickly see how his ideas and questions are still pertinent today. For instance, in “Baldwin’s Many Heirs” by Erin Aubry Kaplan for the September 1, 2016, edition of In These Times, Kaplan wrote, “In his essays, most famously “The Fire Next Time,” he argued with himself at length about how, and whether, this country could save itself from the white supremacy on which it had been built and to which it continued to cling, the successes of the movement notwithstanding.”

Today the African-American community continues to experience many of the same issues of racism and inequality that were apparent in Baldwin’s time. Kaplan cites current African-American literature where James Baldwin’s efforts to discuss and address this issue have continued, including work by journalist Isabel Wilkerson, essayist Claudia Rankine, novelist Edwidge Danticat and poets Natasha Trethewey and Kevin Young. Other research paper topics to consider could compare and contrast one of Baldwin’s essays on race with that of a modern-day writer to see how African-American literature is evolving, or do the same comparison with a focus on how society has or has not changed in its dealings with race relations.